Megilat Esther - Part 1 - Review of Chapter 1 & 2

[Music] hello everyone and welcome back to our series with Angela Esther I mean had a bit of a break so I'm going to spend this class going through and reviewing all the different things that we discussed before so if you missed any of the classes there I'm not coming every single thing but the majority of the things that were pivotal in to understanding the Megillah we're gonna be going through and to start to understand the Megillah we need to look at the history where are we coming into the Megillah and when we read that we say baa Oxford's really like the days of off sparrows but it doesn't tell you who he was where he came from how he got to be where he is so who was on sparrows that Oscar rose the book begins only a few decades after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem the kingdom of Judea had been exiled into Babylonia and the Jewish people were naturally very distressed with us there in exile galoot they had just been uprooted from the homeland the temple destroyed and but they had this prophecy in the prophet yirme'yahu who gave a date and jeremiah chapter 25 verse 12 it says and they shall be at the completion of seventy years our visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation says the Lord their iniquity and upon the land of the Chaldeans and I'll make it forever last thing that desolations at the end of seventy years tonight gave them a date a year or span and people people were naturally Oh seventy years something to hold on to you something to hope for so all the Jewish people were hoping that Hashem is gonna come and whoop you know the Babylonians and so they're holding onto this hope and the Babylonians of course heard of this prophecy and all the Jewish people who are hopeful for and naturally they were very weary and worried they knew they'd heard all the stories of life is the god of the Jewish people had done to me trying I think about those ten plagues but if something like that happens to us so they were a bit nervous and very uneasy like hoping that this prophecy would not come true so all these different monarchs that came after nobody the Qunari there are mindful of the state they were doing their own calculations trying to figure out when the seven of the years began and so then came Belshazzar who was the grandson of nebuchadnezzar and he's also the father of Queen Vashti he believed that the some of the Year reign began with the 70 years began Nebuchadnezzar's reign and that was when the Babylonian Empire was founded in the year 442 BCE and Libya Nezzer he reigned for forty five years I was succeeded by his son ever Avila Mero doc who reigned for another 23 years and this total the Babylonian Empire for 67 years when Belshazzar ascended to the throne when Belshazzar he's knowing the seventy he's thinking seventy years is coming out from when Nebuchadnezzar rose to power and he's shifting nervously in his throne he's watching the months go by then he entered the third year of his reign and he saw that nothing had happened he rejoiced and he decided throw a huge feast and celebrate showing his contempt to the god of the Jewish people and you thought you think I've got nothing to fear here and Belshazzar he prepared such a feast in such a brazen way that not even his father his grandfather would have dared to do he took the sacred vessels of the temple which was Pelt the temples pillage before his burned and he used these sacred items and his wild drunken party he thought he had nothing to fear these items weren't holy the Prophet Jeremiah was wrong babble only survives Jerusalem was not rebuilt but Belshazzar was wrong very very wrong and by that next morning he was dead his oath ashes feed had filled his face almost instantly and that night he was murdered by Darius the Mede and the seven law Cyrus the Persian Darius actually offered the kingdom first to Cyrus and Cyrus is like no no you're my father-in-law you should be the one to ascend the throne and just as was prophesied before that the kingdom would first be shipped the Babylonians and given to the Medes before passed into Persia and both of their reigns Darius and Cyrus's they were very short lived at your Belshazzar's Cyrus what Darius lasted less than a year or only a year listen Lee around here and Cyrus he lasted less than three years Cyrus had given instructions during his short reign that the Temple in Jerusalem should begin to be rebuilt and this is actually another one of the 70 years that from the first stage of the Jewish exile and this was giving more hope such as people like oh maybe maybe we can but maybe we were not forgotten because remembering us yeah it still wasn't in the proper calculation of the seven years but still connected to a calculation but the rebuilding of the temple wasn't meant to be at that time Cyrus reign was short lived and there's a new king to ascend the throne ash barrows and he as soon as he assumed the throne for the Persian Empire he decided that one of the first things he was going to do was to put a halt and that the construction of the temple so the question would arise why did he care can he just said oh the seventy years are up he know Nebuchadnezzar and his descendents they're no longer on the throne this prophecy was for babylon i'm persia like this isn't gonna everything is fine they can let him go back but that wasn't what he was thinking because there was still a major problem there nebuchadnezzar descendant was still on the throne Asheboro she was married to Nebuchadnezzar's granddaughter Vashti Ochs Pharaoh's he was the son of Darius who are rabbis he was just a commoner who usurped the throne he worked there Belshazzar and aux Roche was nothing but a stable boy and hold on just anything over a Colton okay so if Oscar rush is so there is his son why would he have his son-in-law Cyrus to succeed him after Darius which seems a bit odd there's it there's a few different explanations you can lean on one of them is that there's a huge market among the rabbi's whether or not Oxford Road she's really stupid or really smart and if you think when I think he was really stupid you can easily say his father's like this guy is not gonna treat the throne properly he's just gonna make it a party house which Oxford's kind of did but he's just gonna make a party house my son-in-law is much better fit for the crown that could be a explanation but there's an additional opinion from the Talmud that's Cyrus aux parish and Darius the second were actually the same person and that these are different names used to describe his different characteristics and personality changes and according to the Talmud Oscar Roche was Cyrus when he was righteous because he attains the same letters her kosher that was when he was good and then when he became Oxford he became was like awesome the brooch like he was a brother to the head like Nebuchadnezzar he was just as evil as Nebuchadnezzar and then he became dear ii once he was influenced by queen esther and was ready to go and say okay rebuild the temple again and another way to understand it is that that darius if he was like the child of esther could be understood because there's other opinions saying the Midrash that Darius was the child Esther but this could be Madras isn't always was to be taken literally to understand this with connection you could say that he ostrich became a child in a spiritual sense that he was dr. Faraj persona was dead he was the influence and rebirth as he was nurtured and brought up by ester so we don't really know for certain with who aux Roche was if you have Cyrus or a completely different person but we try this figure out huzzah was trying to hints you in these different things so if Oscar Roche was really Cyrus what made him change his mind about the rebuilding of the temple because originally he was all for it then he changed his mind and that answer it comes from the granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar Cyrus's or Oscar OSHA's wife so how did Oscar oshimen come to marry Vashti the Midrash comes to explain that but the nights that Belshazzar was killed and the chaos was consuming the castle and Vashti was frayed and she ran to her father's room to find her father wasn't there and said it was Darius and Darius he took pity on the girl and he gave it took hitting on the girl and it was fine thank you and he took pity on her and he gave her and marriage to santosh barouche but as there's prophesied in the il 1422 I will cut off by Babylonia and remnants offshoot and offspring this prophecy was still waiting to be fulfilled there's no hot water maybe I hope during the few years that ox Pharaohs was married to her obviously this was gonna make quite an impact on him and the way he was viewing things and you could just imagine her telling her husband maybe his legacy well he everything he did everything he destroyed everything you've worked for you wish undo in every bill but he destroyed and they can orderly sends like a fire in her eyes as she's angry and confronting him about this maybe get in again until she was able to get him to see her away the Ostrow she hated the Jews just as much as his wife washed he did and it was his wife that really solidified his reign on the throne Vashti was the one that broiled blood whereas ox rose he was just a usurper a commoner and this it was gonna play out more later on and the Midrash tells us that Oscar oh she hated the Jewish people even more than the wicked Haman so Oscar oash like Vashti's father feared the prophecy of yirme'yahu he believed that Belshazzar had most miscalculated by starting when Nebuchadnezzar began his reign this prophecy given by yirme'yahu a Jew should therefore be connected to the Jews not started the calculation from Nebuchadnezzar began his reign but instead should be when that king of Judea was the throne that that was really when Babylonia extracted their power over the Jewish people and so he decided that was the proper year of the 70 year calculation he was still about 10 years off I mean because the proper calculation was from the destruction of the temple but he believed this was it this was the 70 years and this is where we enter into the book of Esther in the third year of ox ferocious and it begins with in the days of Oscar Rocha the ash Perosh and then they eases this double terminology he wasn't just any Oxbridge the word ox rosh was more of a title than a name he was renowned because of his wickedness use the oxford and you and he was he brought note arias he's bringing notorious fees a whole new level and the rabbi's say that in Ross she says that he was wicked from beginning to end thank you the skip over this here so here we are in the third year of his reign aux Roche pack laid in the 70 years and and he decided to throw like Belshazzar a lavish party a huge feast to mark this and he goes on for 180 days inviting the princes from the provinces and all of his army and milcom others allowed this is you know just the big party for the army and the princes and the party goes on day after day after day the army is getting drunk rather than being on-call to protect the kingdom or the people and the different provinces maybe they're all they're just getting drunk and having fun so Oxford maybe he felt pretty secure that to have his army off duty for so long or maybe he just wasn't thinking so clearly and also the host such a party keeping lavish food drinks woman constantly a had this Hedda start putting away on his royal funds he was a great host though even the whole back any pleasure from any of his guests after 180 days his army and the princes of the different provinces probably had a lot of pressing matters they needed to get back to after leaving everything alone for so long so they all left but Oxford is partying spirit was far from dying out and he cites the thorough second party and in this one he invites every resident from XI Shan cuz you know if they're right there they can just pop in and now if they have a pressing matter they don't have to leave to go to different province she invites every person inside the city even the Jews were invited and when a king throws a party he really throws apart and Midrash says that each man was served wine older than himself another opinion in Midrash which also appears in Hamid is that ox pharrell he assembled people the priestly garments that were used in the temple and you would read the descriptions in the first chapter it goes into like talking great detail at the white fine cotton and the descriptions use describing the garments or the the fabrics is like how it was described and Exodus 20:8 to about the priestly garments and there it's alluding that he was showing that as part of his treasures the Midrash adds that the Jewish people who were present at the banquet they saw these temple vessels being desecrated in this way and they were afraid you messed with you Pope got in the eye you're gonna get smacked and if we're just standing here and watching it happen we're gonna get smacked so they wanted to leave they refused to sit there but cuter oh she's like no don't leave don't leave don't leave like I won't want to make you happy I'm gonna make it sound happy I will make everybody happy I want everybody to love me and see me as royal believe me we accommodate you and me set up a banquet for you outside in the garden so you're still be here now you won't be like in where all the garments are so that's what ostrich did he just set them up a table and they stayed at the feast just outside in the garden now let's look at what's going on for the ladies the wicked Vashti granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar decided that she wasn't just gonna sit back and watch him have all the fun but she was gonna make another party just for the woman for a very Celica sees and sweets and cushions and spacious decorated rooms everything Oscar oh she said Vashti did she wanted just as much honor and just as much recognition there was always a bit of a power struggle between the two of them Vashti a born princess two grand legacy then aux Roche born a commoner a simple stable boy Vashti knew she was worth more than any other woman in the kingdom whereas Oscar oh he was just constantly trying to prove his worth and bossy she held a deep-seated hatred toward the Jewish people and she would punish the Jewish servant girls by making them work on Shabbat completely naked just to humiliate them and she was about to be judged measure for measure on the seventh day of the feast when it falls on Shabbat all the men are sitting around drinking and whether these drunk men discussing woman of course woman they're on their minds and they start arguing about who's the most beautiful woman and his hair Kingdom is and some say it's the Persian woman and the other thing it's the median woman and astros like she's oh it's none other than my wife Queen Vashti who is Babylonian isn't that sweet you know I was like he's saying his wife is the most beautiful woman in the entire kingdom that's sweet but maybe not in front of a crowd of drunken men and so all the men like Oh like yeah we you say she's most beautiful woman prove it yeah like oh yeah I don't believe you prune it come on prove it have her come before us we are nothing royal crown the dark seer and your full Beauty coming before them completely naked and so he's like okay yeah that sound like a good idea cuz the dead wine has gotten bit to his head and also he just wants to make everybody happy he's not really thinking about far-reaching consequences so he decides okay yeah and I bet that makes sense that really makes sense so he goes and sends a word for Vashti to come and so Mira can they give me the Vashti on Shabbat was supposed to come and be presented completely naked just as she was doing to her Jewish servant girls and Vashti she was as moral as they come she wouldn't have minded this deed of flaunting her beauty to the masses you know like the cover of one of those magazines I'm not naming you know like she's she would be proud and happy to do that just flaunting her beauty for everyone to see it wasn't that she declined because she was like I don't want to be seen by either it's not modest she shouldn't have that that gauge she wanted she enjoyed everybody acknowledging her beauty and the rabbi's explained she only refused because Hashem had inflicted her made it impossible for her to do so there's different opinions one says that she had leprosy two rots broke out on her and that way she refused cuz she couldn't her pride would not allow her it's see how if anyone see her in this state and their famous opinion and brought in from the Midrash as to why she refused was that the angel Gabriel came and made her grow a tell MS regime often come with these grand elaborate stories not of all are to be taken literally in misery often hemorrhage in that contradict each other so with ones like this we're trying to look at it and say what's this Madras gonna teach us here cuz I don't think she really grew hotel or whether it's trying to say is that Vashti was like an animal she had to tell she had animal characteristics she wanted to go she couldn't so she had to refuse but she couldn't say the true reason that's who I not because her pride wouldn't allow it and they may be the real reason was that as whose it was on her face and she just felt less than beautiful and nobody can see me in this state but all we know is that something was not quite right with her parents at that moment and to omit would be an insult to her pride and sokka's all Ike says that first she sent messengers to try to dissuade him say and like ox brush wasn't really picking up on their heart different hints and then eventually she's just sent back this biting comments saying even those condemned by my father were not condemned naked my father who drank as much wine as a thousand men without becoming intoxicated but you have become foolish from your wine and that's really what did it send that's why I think you're insulting my ability to like handle alcohol no way and that's he that made his anger burned within him and so he first decided to try to seek advice and he wanted his first seek impartial advice so he first asked the Jewish people like what would you do here and the Jewish people are like yeah we don't want to be in this situation here like bikini like hey he's mad right now and he's drunk right now in the morning he's not gonna really remember what just happened at this moment so if we tell him to kill her he's gonna wake up in the morning be upset with us and kill us but free tell him that mercy on her he's on his right mind right now he's gonna be like what my honor means nothing and he'll kill us anyways they're like okay we're on this like predicament here what are we gonna do so they decide to like tell the King oh you see we've been an exile we've been are the the wisdom that we used to have it's gone from us because we've been in sorrow and they go you neither asked some people who have never tasted the bitterness of exile like like like we have a side of this for you we really don't want to be in the middle here so then the king he goes through those closest to him and he asks them and and the less different names in one of the names that mentions the very last he is suddenly he's mentioned very first as he pushes himself to the forefront and memucan was the first one to give response to Oxford and Roth Conda teaches from this that we always from here we always see that an ignoramus always thrusts his way to the forefront and because he wasn't he was mentioned last and all of a sudden he's name is mentioned first so who is this mimic memucan most commentators agree that it was none other than Hammond and he decides he's gonna give this advice to Oxford so he this advises the most ridiculous things that really make no sense okay he's basically he's saying that anemic needs to be passed and every household it needs to be ruled by the men members the household and the woman she has she's basically like the servants to her husband she has no will of her own and she can't even speak her own native language she has even if their husband knows her native language she has to speak his native language and make things that really why why is this important but he was but he was as we get later on in the Megillah and we talked about Zahra SH and himand we'll learn more about his relationship with his wife that kind of influence that this was actually him on like why he was putting these different things about home relationships and but he also put in the relative law there that the king shear the King why do you have to ask anybody like it you think you should make a lot do we just do it you don't need to ask anyone don't need to ask advice and the King's like yeah and all the people all the advisers were also drunk and they're like yeah so they all agreed and this edict was passed and and this edict was sent to all of the provinces is written in the provinces native language which is part of Oxford effective please the people usually a new rulership he wants the people to learn either his language or a common language he didn't either he just wanted to not put anyone out just to me everyone liked him everyone accepts him yep these people receive this message overnight as if it's some urgent emergency saying that basically every man needs to rule his own household and that Vashti who was his only legitimate claim to the throne was gone and this didn't do so good in the eyes of the people now he's gaining this reputation of being a party king who was a rash who doesn't think things through and sending out were your most ridiculous decrees but he's only gonna regret when she wakes up in the morning and now we come into chapter 2 Oxford roasts she wakes up from his drunken stupor to find out that his wife is gone and he finds out the details that he's gonna this horrible advice and he's like now he's bit worried about seeking advice from these so-called wise men and advisers from there giving advice like this and but it's okay cuz he doesn't actually have to go to them to ask their advice on these matters anymore so therefore one morning ox burrows she's just moping around in his room looking at this portion of it Vashti had before his bed and just moaning about how much he misses Vashti she was so beautiful how can he ever find another woman to compare to her beauty because that's all that really mattered to him and who was near Oxford to hear him when he was constantly moping and complaining around his room his servants boys and it says in the second verse in chapter 2 that his servant boys came with this advice boys who are thinking like fifteen year old boys and they make the next decree for the kingdom and so they aren't really thinking about what kind of virtues a queen must have they're just saying simply find all the beautiful woman put them all together so you can sleep with all of them creating one big harem and hey gay he's gonna be charge of it and these are the 15 year old boys thinking oh that's so amazing that Kings like yeah I want that and without having to ask any advice from his advisors or anything that I think okay that's my next decree this is gonna happen the server boys also advised to appoint commissioners to gather all of the beautiful woman because these women aren't gonna come from their own free will to subjugate themselves to this embarrassment of the king not choosing them and then having to live the rest'll life in the harem so these commissioner says Rashi they were men who are already familiar as to where all the beautiful woman in the nation were located this speaks a lot about the society that they already know about the whereabouts of every pretty face like stalking was a normal part of that society especially when the King encourages it and commands it this way no pretty girl could run and hide when it came time to gather them they already had the whereabouts about everyone pinned down just round them up all at once and this plan was gonna be difficult to execute because seriously no one wants to send their daughter off to be subjugated this beauty treatmentt to be disposed of there after they fall a sheikh explains that oxford she like she promised oh I'm gonna I'm gonna marry that I'm gonna take care of them because he's not like Queen status of marry them but really concubines type of like you know up there being good hands they won't need for anything like you still trying to make people happy but yet he's kind of like I really like this idea okay now he's trying to balance making people happy with fulfilling his own desires and but yeah the woman still didn't really like that idea supposed to them internet being snatched up against their will and the question is why did the woman has to be subjugated to this and the midrash explains that the persian woman used to humiliate the jewish woman and that they would pour constantly contempts in this day then constantly bullying there's all interest of Israel calling them ugly things so ugly I came and look at you because they were just constantly being crawled to the Jewish women and therefore now they were going to be treated in this manner and be chose a Jewish person was gonna be chosen over them chapter two also introduces Esther and Mordecai and know Esther's taking them by Martha high or high raised her as his own in verse seven states when her father and mother died and then it states again right after four she had me their father and mother and this seems like a super lefur a statement sitting at twice it could easily have been written that her parents just died or babe but why is it saying it twice but the seizures teach that the her parents say that two different times that her father died at conception and the mother died in childbirth and that Mordecai he took her Annie and he raised her but there's different opinions as to what this means many Tom mythic scholars determine the Pesek saying that he took her in as a but a meaning dollar should instead be read as bite as a house and etana taught in the name of rabbi meir he also teaches that it should be read not for as a dot labott but as illa bite similarily there's a parable in the book of Melaka given to king david he took no he's a pot Chava but it has to do with that story when the Prophet and the town goes to King David he gives him this parable this thing about a poor man has nothing save one you one lamb but she brought up and he reared and they grew up together and with his children and then in the aid of his own morsel on shrinking of his own cup and laying his bosom it was unto him as a daughter and he says because it lays in his bosom is it like a daughter to him there's a daughter lay at the bosom of a man no it wife lays at the bosom of a man so saying that it's like alibi it's a but in this sense as I could by its mean a house so many take it literally that Esther was married to Mordecai and perhaps another way this cleaner said is that by the time s Sarah's maybe Bat Mitzvah I've been a hood for them to be together and maybe that was when they married they even as your hover says that the rabbi's mean Meredith hi only father marrying her because she was very beautiful but did not and how old was Esther when this story took place we often imagine this young lady but there's two major opinions here and neither of them say she was young young girl one says that she was most common ones says that she was 40 years old another opinion was that she was 75 years old and these are the main opinions of how old Esther was when she was taken and most renews Seba through these age gap who like whether she's 40 or 75 you wouldn't see as much of an age gap between her and Mordecai as well so Esther who's either 40 or 75 she's described as exceedingly beautiful when there was the most beautiful woman in entire world when there was a four must be the full woman that ever existed she's right up there with Sarah mania raha and avi guile and their sages say that she also looked at nickname ambiguous she looked to each person like a member of their own a service first head and she's wasn't first taken she was first reason hiding but her absence was notice by the commissioners because they had already written down every pretty face and therefore the decree was sent out and afterward that if any woman was hidden that the family would be killed only then that Esther come for and that's when she was taken and Esther was pleasing in the eyes of Haggai who was the eunuch who is that was in charge of all of the women this wasn't some superficial beauty that caught his eyes and like there are people who are pleasing from afar but when you get to know them open their mouths you're like why did I think this person was attractive in the first place no it wasn't anything that hurt her beauty was coming out from within and was so clear to him she's just shining maybe she so she misses it's something that was setting her apart from the rest of the woman maybe she was acknowledging him thanking him and asking if he needed assistance with anything of course he did decline that but she was so touched by Esther's goodness that she instantly was favoring his eyes more so than any of the other girls who were probably more caddy or treating him like a lowly slave and mixed Haggai he gives her seven personal servants they'll come and work for her each day of the week the Talmud says that Rashi Brooke and Rashi says that her name had a name for each of the girls for each of the days of the week not that one was called Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I mean she was she wasn't calling him that but each person had a name that denoted something that happened in creation during that day and the Midrash also says that Esther she secretly converted her seven maids and that way Esther could observe the Torah observed Shabbat without drawing attention to herself without looking in usurer she could pray and these people weren't going to tell on her they could help keep her secret and that way the matter would not be known to entire castle of her unusual behavior Asher was a Jewish woman from the tribe of Benjamin a descendant from King Shaw all she had royal lineage which ox rose just throughout the woman who gave him a royal claim the Midrash says that when Oxford removed Vashti from her position 127 provinces they all began to rebound they weren't all in line as they had been before and there wasn't until Murdoch I was put into power that the hundred entry seven provinces would stock bell ink as Faraj he was starting to lose grip on his kingship and had wife in the royal lineage could do some good help and maybe right now since he possesses dollars from most of these provinces it's kind of crawling an uprise in a sense because people have praised the uprise too much she could kill all of their daughters and they're careful not to do too big of an that prize but there's stuff there's an app people are not happy they're rebelling small up Rises or going about and so he if he gets some of these who has like a rural claim he's thinking oh that that will make them happy you know like I just need somebody else here that has a royal claim to the throne the problem was that Nebuchadnezzar has rose to power over 70 years before conquering the known world and he eliminated any threats Sauvage she was really the best woman of royal lineage that was around by leaps and bounds for decades of decades and decades but if a woman was proper him from his harem that had royal bloodline tracing even far back that could be a deciding factor for him to choose her as his wife in just hoping the gang good graces with the people therefore s-sir specifically was told I'm more the hive to hide her lineage like me so you won't get picked and there's also another opinion that here's a murder I was also afraid that the King would slay her if he knew who her family was because she was initially hidden from the capturing of the woman and if they found out oh you're the one who hid her beforehand you didn't ever come he would they would come and kill more the high or maybe they would find out she had that royal bloodline and then they would go and take Hill and Eve her oh it says to erase any threat of the royal bloodline like he wasn't exactly sure how Oxford would respond he's a bit of a wild-card the Vilna go in adds that was the one about the hi hiding her the first time around is to be local and this opinion numerous reasons are given by the sages as to why she needed to keep her Jewishness a secret one of them I really like by the even Ezra because he prefers to believe every she was totally keeping the secret so that she could observe the laws unhindered she with Asheboro should know that she was Jewish and she couldn't she can't eat this or do this he may have tried to coerce her by some way to try to get her to eat the enclosure food by keeping her nationality is secret she can maintain her beliefs without drawing unwanted attention to herself [Music] more the hi saw and learned how a series opened welcome to the opens arms by hey gay and things were falling into place for her it was he's like he's giving her any special sermons she's being really really well this is there's something here there's something here he's really saying thing okay maybe she's gonna be chosen there's gotta be a reason why Esther's in there it's gotta be a reason why is she's being tormented in this sense cuz she doesn't want to be here there has to be she's gonna be used as a divine instrument to save her people so he's always hanging around trying to figure out find word trying to see what's going on cuz for Esther as well to marry Akash to be intimate with an on shoe it's a terrible sin so there's got to be reasons she's in this position in addition if she's married to Murdoch I as well then being with the king is also adultery so she's in quite the predicament and she couldn't escape no matter how she tried to avoid being taken all these things were pointing toward her she found favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her and Hashem did this to Esther for a reason and Mordecai's like I want to learn what's going on he'll help me understand this he'll show him like I know you have a reason here like let me see what's going on and these woman were given 12-month beauty treatments beating a perfume isn't putting on makeup it just seems a little extreme Dwight twelve months like maybe have a week P these treatment and go see the king like a spa week but why is this like a spa yeah like it is this a little overkill here here and it's the opinion is that the the minnows Halevi he brings down the opinion that this was actually a one-year quarantine for the girls that disguise as a beauty treatment but Oxford's want to make sure I didn't have anywhere of the season that we're gonna pop up and like just make sure everything's clean or he had crazy they're pregnant it's like they're not early versions yeah anything like that like he's like hmm so he's like when you're quarantined make sure they're healthy strong and then bring them to me and so when was their dump their 12-month quarantine it was their time to come before the king for a night and the woman he slept with the King that night and now it was improper for her to be with any other man because she's been at the king so now she went off to his personal little harem or big harem room paying for the rest of her life their lives so when it came to Esther's turn she wanted to lessen her chances of being chosen by ox rows she did not want to find favor in Oxford's eyes so she thought maybe if he saw her as displeasing he turned her away like you're you come to me dressed like a plain servant you don't even adorn yourself get out of my sight you use this honor me and she was kind of hoping he would react that way but instead he was he found favor in his eyes and her inner beauty shone through and it wasn't his heart and the people felt connected to her and since she also looked death nicly ambiguous people connected to her it's like oh she's one of my people she people couldn't pinpoint her nationality she kind of look like this nationality she can look like that nationality kind of like that one and so she was keeping her lineage and her family secret nobody knew what nation she was a part of so everyone was like she's part of my nation you know the new queen she's part of all private province and everyone was taking prize with her when Esther comes before the king it's in the seventh year of his reign remember at the beginning of the perm story last chapter it begins in the third year of his reign so now four years have passed since Vashti has disposed some years have passed with Esther in hiding and then she was taking for that year-long duty treatment and there was a lot of woman meanwhile the king was going through a new one every single night for a few years before it got to be Esther's turn and it says no he loved Esther more than in chapter 2 verse 17 he loved us too more than all of the woman and he found in the Grace and favor but for him more than all of the maidens Esther's inner light shone through the king was instantly drawn to her more than the other woman machine the chapter force compares her to machine before the batula before the versions Vicki and here the sages understand that it's comparing her to the woman because she was a woman she wasn't a bit too lost she wasn't a virgin she was a woman she's being compared to them and this is where they end their saved more she was married to Mordecai and and from this sages also understand that Oxford Road he also had built his commissioners had taken many other married women as well not just us there because they were beautiful mmm so she's compared to the woman right first rather than the maidens and Esther she intrigued him to no end he wanted to talk to his wife find out who she was who were people war finally settle that debate from four years prior about who the most beautiful woman that kingdom was but Esther remained silent therefore the king he started to try to bribe her the measure Asha set right side the King he first made a party but she would not tell him her lineage but he admitted taxes in her honor she still didn't say anything and then he but he gave gifts to all of the provinces in her name she still didn't say anything and he was he was just moping around like he he often does it smoke nope nope he's like leaves a Surrey where Esther's as like okay didn't work she's not telling me and he runs into Mordecai he's always somewhere close by and he's sick hey and he says that you know that he takes advice from whoever's closer to him whether it's sherbert boys or just somebody he runs into in the hallway so he sees Mordecai it was like mm what's going on King why are you so sad and ox Roach is saying like I I keep doing everything to get rid of Esther's favor for her to trust me and to tell me who her family is but she won't tell me maybe it's because she thinks her she's descended from somebody who's like it was a traitor to the kingdom or maybe it's because she's afraid you know I she has royal blood and I'm gonna kill her I can advise she maybe she does understand how much I love her and I just want to show her that no matter who she's descended from I love her so much and that nothing in the world was an endless love I have for her and so Martha Kaiser let me give you some advice another way so for years I tried to get her to like tell you what what where she's from and he tells her that a woman is jealous only a other woman so therefore organize another gathering of beautiful maidens know mortify yeah tell him to organize a second gathering of beautiful maidens and he part of that was he was hoping that Oscar Rose should find another woman more pleasing than Esther or that he's been his time with the woman that he's gathering and not with Esther it has helped spare Esther and so therefore we seen that next puss Akande trapped in a verse 19 chapter 2 verse 19 met the maidens were gathered a second time Murdock I was sitting in the Kings gate so after Esther chosen to be creamed the love and favor in his eyes he goes out and takes a whole new barrage of woman to add to his personal harem which is probably our the over a thousand woman by this point and but no matter how many woman he took if he wasn't gonna make her jealous and he I couldn't coerce the secret from her because it was part of it was in her blood it was part of our heritage something she inherited from her how I may know how to keep a secret just as Leia didn't Rahel didn't they volge Leia secrets it seems and also she inherited it from show all who didn't divulge the secret he was appointed King but he went home he didn't tell anybody who's appointed King and this seems to be a skill or an art which was passed down through that bloodline not to really feel this like private information and assume that she was willing to just sit back through the higher authority take control of the events and she wasn't really trying to take an active role in changing the course of history another thing let me speak about was Esther married to the king and non-jew this wasn't just a matter of intermarriage but also the matter of adultery as well how can we understand this putting a married woman a married Jewish woman in this position rabbi here the serpent writes an article on the saying that the moment that Esther was taken into the Kings house from there she continued to passively resist any action that the king would make toward her so clearly her marriage to the king was not her choice it was not ideal to be emulated or celebrated in any way she was she were but had she refused to comply with the Kings wishes she no that would have been put to death but there's three cardinal sins here ones that you're supposed to give up your life rather than do and one of them is adultery so how can we understand like the situation here there's different explanations we're going to focus on the classic one when it comes to a three cardinal sins barely obligated to give up their life rather than to do it thus if someone's under the pain of death to commit a murder they first should give up their own life so rather than do so however one is not required to give up their life this is done in the passive manner thus if a woman is violet ha violated Hospice alone she the Act is being done to her she's an active participant in his act therefore it's not considered one of the three cardinal sins it's not adultery she's the one being violated and so she doesn't have to give up her life in this situation therefore as long as esther was being forced into having a relationship at oxford she was not obligated to give up her life and look more into this deeper in chapter 4 when she finally goes to him from her own free will in other opinions is that esther herself was never personally was never intimate with oxford they're different there's a lot of different opinions brought in one of them says that one of her maid servants went disguises Esther would go to the king and there says another opinion from the Zohar is that a demon went in her stead and laid with Oxford but all in all this was a less than ideal situation for Esther she couldn't understand why Hashem had put her into his position but she was gonna give it all that she had she knew there was a reason Shem had it there for a purpose and she was just tryna remain strong Hashem and Torah and Sue Marta hi and the thing we have some more time there is I wasn't sure if we're gonna have time for it but divas not here yet so there's another part that we spoke about in the previous classes the very end of chapter 2 Mordecai he is brought up to the Kings gaze we mentioned before an athletic that Oscar rose she took all of the woman a second time and then Marie I said at the Kings gate these couple things are connected and part of its he wanted to give honor to Mordecai for like this advice of taking an all a different woman and also there's a penny for Miss ages is that Esther she told Oxford that no all these different advisers it was the non-jewish advisers that told you to get rid of Vashti whereas the Jewish ones were actually pretty wise when they decided to stay silent knowing if they advised to either way it wouldn't have been good you should bring it like a Jew more closer and I know this one's you Mordecai and she's the one who helped get him appointed to that position and there was a lot of anti-semitism running around in Persia people weren't happy that this Jew was being brought up to sit at the Kings gate being one of the judges that said that the Kings gate isn't this Jim what did he do to deserve this and this was adding a lot more to Oxford's plate but made people start questioning his judgments and then a couple of his servants suburb his people his chamber moons and people were like bring him his drinks and everything they were they didn't like this Eric we're better fit for this position for Heather than Mordecai this we should be the ones in this position not him but the king he's getting out of control he's getting out of hands they were getting really upset and they decided that they were going to start plotting the King's death and so they decide to they're selling not so far from Mordecai himself speaking in their native language making Mordecai miss Julie's not going to understand them but Mordecai who's a part of the Sanhedrin he's a part of the Sanhedrin and he understood the 70 languages so it was necessary for the members of the Sanhedrin so that when witnesses are brought for them the witnesses were brought before them from different nations they can all speak in their native tongue and be understood so more like hi he understood this obscure language that they didn't think he'd be able to understand and he heard their plot in detail of how they were planning to kill the king so he sends word to Esther about their business what was going to happen he sends word tester and so she decides like to submit to ostrich with murder his name but it kind of went out one ant went in one ear out the other didn't really hear about the whole connection with Mordecai certain thing Oh Esther she's the one who did it she's the one who saved my life here and he decides to use in more ways to honor her and give things to her when he he kind of just didn't really know this the more the high part of it but that was abraha that would be come out later on but he would be able to honor or the high but he besides that he wants there are there other Esther in this mother and how is he gonna honor Esther he's already given her everything that he could he's given gifts the provinces their own banquets he just wouldn't think of another way thinking how about the man who helped Esther get into this position and remember that penny and that memory Khan was none other than her mom he said I am going to appoint this man here to be my second hand because it was not for him I would not have gotten where the Vashti and Esther would not be my queen right now and so at that moment he decides to take him on and rise him to power being his second hands and that's where we enter into chapter 3 come on is now there he's in power and what he decides to do with it and that's where we're gonna pick up next class [Music]